Yesterday at Shamwari Game Reserve, we found this lioness, and two others, stalking something in the bush line. We noticed that she had something in her mouth and at first thought it was a scull from an old carcass stuck in her teeth. But looking through binoculars, there was blood dripping from her mouth and we realised that it was a tortoise. While stalking she never put it down or tried to eat it for the whole 20 minutes of watching the lions. She probably didn't want to lose her snack to the others.

On our way home we stumbled upon this caracal, which appeared to be eating something. It left the food to go into the shade so we took a closer look.

It was eating the leftovers from what seemed to be a fresh lion kill.

Both photos were taken by one of the Shamwari Conservation Experience Volunteers, Susanne Merz.

Besides the once in a lifetime chance to get behind the scenes and involved with the conservation efforts of Shamwari Game Reserve, our Gap Year volunteers also experience once in a lifetime wildlife sightings!